Archives for June 2016

If so, you need to do everything possible to increase the amount of traffic, the click-through response rate to your affiliate page links, and the relevance of your content to the product(s) you’re promoting.

Typically, affiliates slap up a web page, add a few links, some cut-and-paste content, and forget about the site for a few weeks or months waiting for it to get “spidered” and included in the search engines.

There is a better way to accomplish affiliate sales.

If you pay close attention to the details of your site, like you would if you were selling your own direct marketing product, your affiliate sales can soar.

Here are a few suggestions on how to pump up your affiliate marketing without spending a lot of money buying targeted traffic or spending a lot of computer time fiddling with complicated linking strategies:

It’s very important to understand the exact terms and phrases that surfers are currently using to find the affiliate product you’re promoting.

2. Develop a specific theme for your affiliate web page, one that naturally and seamlessly leads surfers to clicking on your affiliate links.

There are several web site models for doing this: “how to” sites that give information on the product use, review type sites that present an “objective” evaluation of the product, content sites that compile lots of articles about the use and features/benefits of the product, and recommendation sites that directly point to the product site as the recommended alternative for the solution to the viewer’s wants.

3. Give the viewer a “takeaway” or reminder that he can save and come back to later.

Make sure the web page contains printable links to your affiliate product so that the page can be saved as a “favorites” link or as a printed page that can reviewed at a later time.

4. Lead your reader down the buying path or through the “funnel.”

Leave no doubt in his mind as to the steps you want him to take, in the order you specify, resulting in his final action of clicking through to the affiliate product.

Leave nothing to chance. Be specific and don’t hesitate to ask for the order (click-through).

5. Be very thorough in your explanations of the five “Ws”: what, why, when, who, and where.

In other words, leave no questions unanswered and anticipate with preciseness what issues, concerns, or objections the reader may have in mind about what he is looking for and where he is being referred to.

6. Offer incentives as a way to get your readers to your site and to click through to the referral site.

Make the incentives relevant to the affiliate product if possible.

The idea is to add interest and value to the product you’re promoting and you can do that by giving additional information or other insights to the product’s usefulness.

7. Create a directory site for specific related products.

You will draw a lot more traffic to your affiliate site if you broaden the focus to many related products within a specified niche.

This strategy will label you as an authority in the subject and your site as a comprehensive “index” that is “objective” (even if your links are not!) in covering possible solutions.

Your site could be anything from a product portal to a niche blog. Various web site types can be employed to be successful.

8. Don’t let your site become stale.

Continue to add content, new links, and information that will cause the spiders to review and evaluate your site often.

Pay close attention to the little details of your site. Check all the links regularly. Check your navigation and site usability.

Keep your content current and you will be paid nicely for your effort!

9. One of the highest converting audiences for affiliate products will be your own mailing list subscribers.

This may sound obvious . . . but in actuality, many starving affiliates never build subscriber lists in the niche of their chosen products. Don’t you make that same mistake!

Affiliate sales are where a lot of Internet marketers begin their career journeys. Serious income can be made but you should follow the path of other successful top affiliates – model what they do to earn their commissions.

I started following Internet businesses back in the mid-90’s and continue to be amazed at the variety and sheer number of creative business techniques and selling ideas that I’ve seen during that time.

Of all the trends, promotions, sales, and marketing ploys I witnessed, I am continually amazed at one particular selling strategy I’ve seen that has enormous power and sales potential yet very few marketers ever consider using it.

Here it is:

One of the hottest “types” of information products online today are “how to” guides or instructions that let users accomplish tasks and projects that they didn’t know how to do previously.

In every niche, it seems, there are opportunities for developing these types of products.

People are somehow attracted or drawn to learning about subjects that will help them fulfill their dreams.

But that’s not exactly the strategy that I want to mention here.

People buy these “how to” products in great numbers; but there is even a more attractive strategy that some have developed that outsells the “how to do it” products hands down.

It’s the type of product that actually accomplishes the task for you.

You buy the product and it automatically provides you a result or an outcome.

Here are a couple of examples:

Instead of buying an ebook that explains “ten different ways to identify key words for your specific niche web site,” you would sell a ton more products if you developed a piece of software that simply and automatically created that same list of key words for you – no fuss, no work, no hassle.

Here’s another: many new business owners will buy information products about how to set up and develop a profitable web site.

But the real money will be made by those creative types that offer to set everything up and get the web site running for you – without your involvement (or with minimal intervention).

People are impatient. Time is of great value.

They are anxious to be gratified immediately when they purchase a product (benefit.)

Many want to learn; but many, many more want all the work done for them.

If you think about ways to make products and systems easy to use, “automatic,” push a button and it’s done, “system in a box,” etc, you will be on the road to unlocking one of the Internet’s great marketing strategies that many don’t understand or think about.

The done for you (DFY) solutions will almost always outsell the do it yourself (DIY) solutions.

Here’s just one example that many of you will remember.

Think back decades ago (if you’re old enough) and you will remember a time when you didn’t see many car washes.

When I was growing up, we always kept a bucket of sponges, soap products, towels, car waxes and polishes, chamois, and window cleaner on a storage shelf in the garage. Every couple of weeks I would earn some “allowance” money washing my parent’s cars in our driveway. Cleaning one car could take up to a half hour or more depending on whether I waxed the car after giving it a wash.

All the neighbors washed and waxed their own cars at home.

Jump forward to today. How often do you wash and wax your own car. Never? Once in a great while?

Times have changed. It’s way more convenient to drive your car through a commercial car wash than to do it yourself. It’s faster, easier, and more convenient. The “done for you” solution makes more sense than the “do it yourself” solution, even if it costs a few dollars. You are willing to pay for the quick, easy, immediate result, hassle-free alternative!

Now think of how you might adapt this same DFY principle, “done for you,” to your product or service based online business. Consumers want benefits and solutions. They would rather have them handed over without any work on their part rather than working themselves to derive the same benefit.

There is a tendency among new business owners to price their products and services too low in the hope that they will attract more customers and not be given a reputation of being overpriced.

There are several problems with this strategy.

First, the kind of information business we propose for solo Internet entrepreneurs won’t have any direct competition.

The products, information and business execution are likely to be very unique and tailored to the owner’s personality and experience.

If you base your business on your own knowledge, skills, education, and passions, how can anyone copy those attributes?

They can’t and that’s a good thing.

You will be able to set your own pricing without having to worry about relevant direct price comparisons.

The second problem with under pricing your information products is that you will likely be seen as a run-of-the-mill service that has nothing of special value.

The cutthroat businesses thrive on razor thin margins and moving truckloads of products.

Hopefully, that will never be your business strategy!

In addition, cheap pricing in many niches suggests that you will not give good customer service or after-the-purchase assistance.

How can a business afford to spend time with customer’s product issues if there are only a few cents of profit in each sale?

On the other hand, if you charge a higher price for your information, in whatever form it takes, you will have the benefit of being perceived as having a high value offering.

It’s the “you get what you pay for” syndrome.

Higher pricing will attract a different kind of customer.

Instead of appealing to the buyers that are always looking for a discount, you will appeal to those who are after quality products, unique and special information, and a quality web site and customer service experience.

These people, usually in higher income brackets, will become the excellent customers that understand value products, don’t question pricing as often, and appreciate your personalized service.

They expect to pay a premium for the way they want to be treated.

Higher pricing will tend to push your business into the less populated territory at the top of your niche.

You will be able to differentiate your products and services from those of other competing businesses.

Higher pricing will allow you to sell fewer products and generate similar or greater revenue.

Since you have to sell fewer products, you will have fewer complaints to deal with, fewer customer requests for your time, and fewer follow-ups, downloads, etc.

If you decide to follow this strategy, it goes without saying that you must provide your customers with products and service that are noticeably above the other lower priced options available to them. Certainly that suggests that you have identifiable knowledge, wisdom, experience, or talents/skills that others will notice are infused into your products. You can’t just say you are going to choose a certain kind of high end customer without giving the corresponding high end products and services.

You will need to “earn your keep” so to speak, but your customers will be loyal and attracted to staying with your service because they will recognize its superiority.